It’s back!
Twenty years later Tatra Press has kindly allowed me to bring back Grounds For Golf now that golf architecture is of more interest to the masses. A new Introduction looks at what’s driven the interest growth and two new chapters I had a blast adding (plus a few edits to keep things up-to-date).
The Amazon purchase page for the book arriving June 15, 2026.
Thanks to readers Mark, Ken and Chris for the head's up on George White's column on distance changes in the game.
The normally eloquent White draws no conclusion, ends the piece abruptly and in general, dances around the cause of the problem, but what's more interesting is that it's been a long, long time since anyone wrote one of those silly pieces about how distance hasn't changed much in recent years. Glad we finally cleared that hurdle.
Vanessa Blum reports on the lawsuit filed by Rees Jones against his beloved brother, Bobby (aka RTJ II).
It pits the two sons of famed golf course designer Robert Trent Jones in a messy court fight over $100,000 and the use of their deceased father's name.A clothing line?
The men, both successful golf architects in their 60s, are known to be fierce competitors who conduct most of their communication through lawyers.
Now younger brother Rees Jones is suing older brother Robert Trent Jones Jr. for his share of taxes owed on the estate of their mother, who died in 1987. Rees Jones also claims Robert Jr. misappropriated their father's name when he contracted with a clothing firm to create a Robert Trent Jones apparel line.
Still, that the brothers would go to court over a relatively modest sum of money is testament to how frayed their relationship has become. Even the language of the suit hints at a much larger family drama.I have to stop here to get some tissues so I can weep for these two big grown ups!
"This is a story about the eldest son of a famous golf course designer, who has selfishly taken advantage of his younger brother since their father's death through broken promises and clandestine conduct," states the complaint.
Fort Lauderdale attorney Bruce Weihe, who represents Robert Trent Jones Jr., declined to comment on the specific allegations against his client.And...
"This is a private family matter and we hope for a quick resolution of the dispute," Weihe wrote in a brief statement.
Neither Robert Trent Jones Jr. nor Rees Jones could be reached for comment.
The lawsuit's first claim stems from the execution of their mother's will. According to the suit, Rees Jones paid $296,414 in deferred estate tax that came due in 2001. He asked his older brother for half, but Robert Trent Jones Jr. responded with a check for $49,338 -- leaving $98,869 outstanding, the suit alleges.In the second portion of the suit, Rees Jones demands half the royalties earned by his brother from a Robert Trent Jones clothing brand he developed with Gear for Sports in 2005.
Bradley Klein, who has tracked the brothers' careers as Golfweek's architecture editor, said Rees and Robert Jr., who goes by Bobby, probably began trying to one-up each other "in the crib."And...
"They hate each other," he said. "They are rivals in every way."
Klein said Robert Jr., more than Rees, has advanced his career by trading on his father's fame and their similar names.
"He's cashing in on the confusion," Klein said. "Now that his father is dead, the name has become even more famous."
According to government records, Robert Jr. trademarked the brands Robert Trent Jones Design and Robert Trent Jones Golf in addition to the Robert Trent Jones logo used by Gear for Sports after his father's death. Just because Robert Jr. has the same name as his father doesn't mean he can profit off it without giving his brother a cut, said Fort Lauderdale lawyer Matthew Nelles, who specializes in trademarks and intellectual property.
On the other hand, Nelles said, Rees Jones could have filed a formal objection when Robert Jr. trademarked the various brands.
"Robert Jr.'s going to say `I have the federally registered trademark giving me exclusive rights to use the name. I don't have to give you anything,''' Nelles said.
In his lawsuit, Rees Jones contends rights to the name passed equally to both sons under their father's will, and any profits should be divided between them.
The case has already drawn a flurry of combative exchanges between the brothers and their lawyers.
Robert Jr. tried to get the suit tossed out, claiming he was not presented with a copy of the complaint within 120 days as required by Florida law. In a sworn statement, the elder brother said court papers could have been provided to him when he crossed paths with Rees Jones at two golf events in spring 2006.
Kline, Rees Jones' attorney, said Robert Jr. evaded the individuals who came to serve him with the documents.
How tragic if these two masters were to spend their final days in court, giving their millions to lawyers instead of screwing up classic courses or building new banal ones!
Carolyn Bivens, talking to Larry Bohannan about what surely keeps Tim Finchem up at night too:
"What I didn't know and what I certainly would not have chosen was for there to be the volume of issues," Bivens said Wednesday at Bighorn Golf Club, site of this week's Samsung World Championship. "I wish there hadn't been 11 tournament contracts that were due to be renewed. I wish the (media) photographic contract had not been expiring and had to be addressed."Yep, I'm sure all commissioner's lie awake at night wondering, "what are we going to do about this photographic contract?"
On some tournaments leaving the tour after this season: Bivens said tournaments left for various reasons, including changing business climates, changes in marketing and, in some cases, changes that would have been required for renewal by the tour. "That's part of the cycle. There were 11 of them up for renewal. One of the tournaments (in Las Vegas) we chose very quietly not to renew. It hadn't been a very popular tournament."
Uh, now as an outsider, I didn't know that the LPGA was in such demand that you could just "quietly" not renew an event because it wasn't "very popular."
The prolific Bill Simmons shares some fun stuff from his 10 minutes of videogame time with Tiger.
The ESPN.com "Fact or Fiction" debaters had a hard time taking the stance that stars will turn out more when the FedEx Cup "playoffs" commence. (The two "Fact" presenters threw out the "for at least one year" caveat...quite the endorsement of the concept!)
They did however agree on the concept of a September finish working because golf can't compete with football and the baseball playoffs.
Why is it that no one wants to endorse that idea that golf, like all other sports, simply needs to go away for a month or two so the, uh, product and the uh, consumers can be refreshed?
Just 10 of the World Top 50 are teeing it up in Las Vegas. But note John Daly down at 190th on the money list and in the Vegas field (like there was any doubt he'd miss this week!).
I don't believe Daly does not have enough all-time money (76th) to get one of those little one-time exemptions, so barring a big check the next three weeks, the Skins Game may be Long John's tune-up for the Q-School finals.
Have you seen the new "Index" magazine published by Golf Digest, with Deutsche Bank CEO Seth Waugh on the cover and Gil Hanse's Boston Golf Club featured prominently?
I'm curious what you think. (Their listed website, GolfDigestIndex.com doesn't seem to work.)
The publication has some nice stuff and a classy design, but it also seems like a wannabe Links Magazine only geared toward the conspicuous consumer who would actually heed Marty Hackel's fashion advice. There was just a bit too much rejected Buddies Issue content, including a Bryant Gumbel-Matt Lauer fashion spread that seemed better suited for The Advocate.
Thomas Friedman's half-hearted interview with Waugh was disappointing because Waugh is a charismatic chap and avid student of the game who deserved to be asked better questions than, "Can you really learn about a person's character by playing golf with him?"
There's a spread on the Top 50 private golf "retreats" (Firestone!?!?!?) and a fascinating piece by Marcia Chambers on a country club hustler.
Anyway, if you haven't seen it, look for it at finer clubs and resorts (I think).
As part of the package of renovation stories, a sidebar review of "different" courses is included. Brad Klein slipped this not-so-glowing review of Dismal River in:
Anytime you open a golf course with a windmill smack in the middle of a hole, you raise some eyebrows. Dismal River, a Jack Nicklaus design in the middle of Nebraska's Sand Hills, did just that, on its par-5 fourth hole, and the windmill looks perfectly natural on what was an old ranch. There are some fine, natural looking holes here, but also some significant tweaks that already are being planned to fix some rough spots, including a partial regrading of three fairways and significant softening of the slopes on a half-dozen greens.
Lest anyone think that rerouting a course out here on such natural terrain is easy, remember that in routing Sand Hills Golf Club, which sits only five miles east of Dismal River, co-designers Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw took two years to settle on a sequence of holes that would work in the wind and that would accommodate the ground game.
Dismal River couldn't be more different, not only in playing character, but also in its overall business model. A 26,000-square-foot clubhouse/lodge looms over the property, and the club includes high-end real estate, spa, bowling alley, corporate outings and an exclusive dining room for founding members.
Brad Klein writes about the renovation/restoration trend.
If, as hoped, Morrish also gets to redo Las Colinas, he'll get a little meaner with tighter bunker patterns and longer tee shots. He'll do so admitting a little bit of confusion in dealing with distance these days – a problem that confronts all architects.Klein also writes about the wonderful trend of big name architects getting to redo their own work because it was so bad the first time around (wait, wouldn't that be the case with Morrish redoing Las Colinas!?). Anyway, in this story he focuses on Doonbeg and this anecdote gave me a chuckle:
"I don't even know where to put bunkers anymore," said Morrish. In looking back at his four decades in the business, he sees a continual evolution of distance, and wishes it would come to an end. Forty years ago, when he supervised construction of Spyglass Hill Golf Club, everything in the industry was calculated on the basis of 750 feet (250 yards). When Morrish worked on Muirfield Village in 1972-73, Jack Nicklaus broke new ground by relying on 800 feet as a turn point for doglegs and for bunker placement, and less than a decade later at Castle Pines, a mile high in Colorado, they went to 850 feet. Now, 900 feet is commonplace.
When Pete Dye was redoing his original design at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass – Dye calls it "the fifth time he's gotten to rework it" – he settled on 330 yards, which also happens to be the distance Fazio relied upon at Augusta National for the carries required to clear fairway bunkers.
When it opened four years ago, the stunning links-style setting on 377 acres of rugged dunes overlooking Doughmore Bay in southwest Ireland was unrelenting to play and nearly impossible to enjoy. Evidence for that was clear enough in the inaugural match that saw course designer Greg Norman lose seven golf balls while playing against homeland favorite Padraig Harrington.
Greg Norman continues to pass on the Kool-Aid by daringly pointing out that the pro game is not in the best shape.
"Players need to bring the spirit back," Norman said. "There has always been great players to bring people to the game to lighten it up so that it's not so serious.
"Look at what (Rafael) Nadal has done for tennis because of the way he is, like a boxer. You never hear anyone coming out and saying I want to beat Tiger Woods - I haven't heard that," Norman added. "Nadal comes out and says he wants to beat Roger Federer because he's No 1 and that's great for tennis."
Norman, who has played little golf - and watched even less - since making his senior's tour debut last year, also said the technology used in making golf clubs should be reserved for amateurs only.
"I have a problem with someone winning a golf tournament without using a driver," Norman said. "The game has always been dominated by power-hitter players, but today you can't tell the difference between the players because of the technology."
Check out this Deadspin post* on a proposed Congressional resolution celebrating 90 years of the PGA of America (and no, it's not the PGA Tour as Deadspin and another blogger make the amazingly frequent mistake of confusing the two).
But more importantly, check out who was sponsoring the bill. Key word: was.
*Corrected link.
If you enjoyed my column on scorecards, then check out Jeff Silverman's WSJ take on yardage books.
But yardage books have personality, and every one is different. While they're all designed to fit in a back pocket, some open like novels, while others flip like a steno pad. Some have fancy covers with alluring photos and computer-enhanced 3-D depictions of each hole; others employ line drawings that are a short step up from finger paints.
CBS adds Ian Baker-Finch...wouldn't he be great on Amen Corner? Or 17 at Augusta, with Oosty moving to 12 and 13.
This just can't be good news for Bobby Clampett.
During his post third round press conference at Greensboro, Davis Love tried to share some interesting thoughts on design. Unfortunately, the ASAP person handling the transcript had trouble finding their comma key (amongst other transcription issues):
And, you know, I think we knew what the golf course looked like, we knew the old style and, you know, we liked the kind of the Chicago golf club, that kind of style green and we thought it would fit very well here and give the members a chance to get the ball to run up on to the greens.
You can kind of tell the downhill balls the ball runs on to the green, uphill holes little bit of false fronts. Very, very traditional.
Somebody like Lee Jantzen who is studying old golf courses comes up and talks to me about them all the time. If you appreciate some of the old Master kind of things, there's like that goofy No. 2 green, there's some designers that put a green like that on every course they built and, you know, we didn't do a punch bowl and didn't do a "Rhodan" but we did really old style greens and I think the members like it especially if the rough is a little bit lower than it is right now, they have a lot of fun playing it.
Reading his words after they've been run through the Ali G translator (when do we get a Borat version!?), I think you'll find that he actually makes a little more sense.
and, yous know, i think we knew wot da golf course looked dig, we knew da batty style and, yous know, we liked da kind of da chicago golf cukabilly, dat kind of style greun and we thought it would fit well well in da house and borrow da members a chance to get da ball to run up on to da greens.you can kind of tell da downhill mr biggies da ball runs on to da greun, uphill battys little bit of false fronts. well, well traditional.
somebody dig lee jantzun who is angin batty golf courses comes up and natters to me about them all da time. if yous appreciate some of da batty masta kind of fings, there's dig dat goofy no. 2 greun, there's some designers dat put a greun dig dat on every course dey built and, yous know, we didn't do a punch bowl and didn't do a "rhodan" but we did for real batty style greens and i think da members dig it for real if da rough is a little bit lowa than it is right now, dey ave a lot of wicked playin it.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
